The Scar Mines

Apr 26, 2015

PCs present:
Osirian Silvertongue
Zaya
Fluffy
'Boy'

After The Fall Of The Giants

The litter....the limo of it's day

This session begins with the battle of the giant scouting party defeated and the soldiers of The Order Of The Thundershields slowly dispersing.  The group debates long and hard as to what direction to take the adventure in next.  They delay long enough that an emissary from the Lord Of Diafthora, Amael Ogonborn, arrives and invites the party to the Thundershield Keep to receive praise from the lord himself for assisting in saving the city.

The group declines in favor of inviting Amael, instead, to visit them, here at the city gates.  After some discussion the elderly emissary leaves to deliver the message.  The group sits back to rest, tend to their wounds and wait.  While doing so they impress the couple of soldiers assigned to the gate with stories of their adventures.   The emissary returns, this time with a retinue of soldiers carrying, in a litter, the Lord of Diafthora himself, Amael Ogonborn.

He is set down just outside of the gates and gestures to the group with a effeminate wave of his hand. His manner is light and carefree and seemingly not of any local accent or mannerisms.  He praises the group and offers them a place within the ranks of The Order Of The Thundershields, as reward for their endeavors.  The group debates long and hard.

Finally the lord, tiring of the late day sun and the wait, orders his men to take him back and tells the group the find him and tell him of their decision when they are ready.  So the group decides to seek out a friendly inn to eat and sleep, and perhaps to make a few coin.

The Sons Of Cenarius
2,050 XP

We haven't had a good bar fight in a while.  Just what the doctor ordered.

The group, curious of the rest of the city, decides to explore the city on the other side of the river.  They approach one of the three bridges but are turned back by the soldiers.  The soldier claims that they are trying to enter the more affluent side and if they have no business there then they are not allowed.  Asking about for a good inn, they are told of the massacre at the SoldShort Inn (which they are intimately aware of already) and finally of an in called Haven, which is very nearby.

Haven's patrons are of the more wealthy clientele.  They are those from the wealthy and well-to-do families on the south side of the river.  They come hear to seek out a taste of the 'other-side-of-the-river' with all of its adventure and seediness (while still being close to the protection of The Order and it's Keep).  The group quickly picks out easy and wealthy marks to prey upon.

They have good luck up until the point, Zaya pushes her luck a little too far.  She sees a large overfed man flagrantly doling out the coins to the waitresses to keep the food and drink replenished at his table.  While Osirian tries to distract him with a song, Zaya brazenly walks past him and tries for the money purse at his side.  Unfortunately, she is a bit too obvious and the man moves quicker than expected and grabs for Zaya's arm.  Zaya quickly ducks behind a few bustling people moving past and is gone from sight.  While the man shouts for assistance, Zaya hoods up and finds the keeper of the rooms, purchases one and moves immediately into her room.

Finally, separated from her companions, two thieves who were trailing her ambush her alone in her room, grab her and force her at knife point to go back downstairs.  They tell her not to make a move or sound and no harm will come to her.  They just need to talk.  Zaya, makes more than a few attempts to escape but none to avail.  Finally though, with a dexterous move while going down the stairs she tucks and rolls and is back up on her feet, away from the thieves, and makes  a signal noise trying to get the attention of the group.  Only Fluffly is alerted and tries to come to her aid.  Fluffy is quickly grabbed and Zaya is re-grabbed.

Zaya tries to make the hidden struggle a little more obvious and tries to get the attention of the entire inn by exposing her elven face by tossing back her hood after being struck by one of the thieves. People immediately notice and the room is filled with gasps and after realizing that a full on bar-room-fight is occurring, the gasps turn to screams.  It is only after the battle becomes more obvious that Osirian and 'Boy' are alerted, and they too join in to try and save Zaya.  A move of notable worth was Osirian running along the bar top and flinging himself towards the thief holding Zaya, only to smack into the wall and fall among the kegs.

Dragging Zaya outside the group discovers the thieves plan is to get her into a readied horse drawn wagon.  If they succeed in getting her into the wagon it would be very likely that the pursuit would be difficult.  Realizing this 'Boy' sends a magic missile off and hits the horse.  The horse scared and injured rears back, it's handler unable to keep it at bay, and it runs off down the road not to be seen again. The thieves change their tact and more thieves emerge from the shadows.  The battle is fairly even when Zaya and the main thief start to talk about possible deals they can make.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: I had no idea what hit points a horse might have. I think it was fortunate that I could find stats that said the horse wouldn't just die after being hit by a magic missle. I'm sure it would've worked out either way but this is less gruesome and more fun.

The main thief releases Zaya and the two of them talk and it is discovered that Zaya has a bounty on her head by someone nicknamed 'The Orc'.  It seems all the thieves guilds in much of the land has been informed of the bounty and they tell Zaya that she is not safe anywhere.  This guild, The Sons of Cenarius, is willing to let her go and not let on, if she pays them at least half of the bounty.  The full bounty being 1,000 gp.  She declines without even a thought and counter offers. This goes back and forth until it is agreed upon that the group will try to get the gold flowing from the, supposed, haunted mines and as a show of good faith, Zaya gives them 'magically powerful mushrooms', which in reality are the green glowing mushrooms that she just found in the vampire's lair in the sewers.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: I still at the moment have no idea what the mushrooms will do when the thief/thieves finally ingest them. I'm thinking there's a good possibility that it will come back to bite Zaya in the ass. But come on! Really?!? It's like selling magic beans to a gullible farm boy.

The group gathers their things up.  Re-enters the inn.  Zaya thanks them for the room but tells them she will sleep elsewhere (while flipping the boy at the bar a coin for his troubles.  But all the boy sees is the elf tossing something so he quickly ducks back down behind the bar before the coin reaches him) while Fluffy refills his keg and has a drink with nerve shattered boy to show him all is well.

They find quiet refuge yet another inn, The King's Court. This time with no excitement.

The Burning Spires
2,350 XP

The Scar Mines.  Not a great vacation destination

The group finally decides to take up Amael's offer of the position of officers in the Order Of The Thunderhsields.  They enter The Keep to meet Amael, who seems not to care about details or trivialities of such things.  He directs them to his financial officer, Keyon Lightglove, who is a slight and tired and fairly overwhelmed man in an ill fitting Order of The Thundershield uniform.  He gives them the option to don Thundershield attire, the keys to the officers quarters and a stipend of 1 gold piece a day.  The party declines most of this in return for a letter identifying them as officers in The Order.

One of their first actions as officers they investigate the mines.

They ask around the barracks and discover that the mines are not producing because workers refuse to enter the mines out of fear that it is haunted.  Approaching the mines they find workers milling about and hear of a group of miners that had entered and a few of them returned, harried and terrified, telling of horrors that had taken the others.

The group enters the mines.

The mines start off as typical mines.  Smooth tool marked tunnels reinforced with wood.  Much further down a break in one of the tunnels exposes a rough naturally warn cavern with smoking fiery spouts scattered throughout.  The group moves cautiously through.  In time they encounter two hell hounds, a harpy and imp.  It would seem that they have been imprisoned here for thousands of years only to recently find themselves able to leave....and neither miners nor this group is going to stop them.

Through the black and caustic smoke a person appears, and it would seem to be Zaya's companion from long ago, Fade.  He beckons to Zaya, but Zaya feeling something is obviously wrong resists and finds her self psychically damaged and laying on the ground.  To Fluffy, this creature appears as a beautiful kobold but he too resists.  To Osirian, the creature which the group has by now discovered is a succubus demon, appears as the comely bar maid from the SoldShort Inn.  She beckons to him and he succumbs and as a result is forced to hit Zaya, injuring her.

The battle is long and hard with the group finding themselves close to death more than a few times. Finally, all their powers nearly depleted, the group is able to defeat the last of the creatures.  After a quick rest to tend to their grievous wounds they find a treasure hoard that would seem to be thousands of years old.

They find gold pieces minted in a long ago age, gems, a beautifully carved porcelain scroll case and a large stone in the shape of an egg.


MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: The group was so near death that I didn't blame them for wanted to lick their wounds and retreat. Carrying on and finding any sort of challenge could easily mean their death. But I felt that having worked through such a gruelling battle only to leave while a great treasure hoard lies just beyond the smokey barrier would be a crime. So after a not so subtle hint, the group finds the treasure and the cheer of joy, for me, was definitely worth game breaking hint.

What's next.  Who the hell knows. Definitely not me.

Giant Problems

April 19, 2015

PCs present:
Osirian Silvertongue
Fluffy
Zaya
"Boy"
Alek
and introducing Aelar Mindlasher

The Lair Of The Vampires
2,700 XP

This session continues directly from the last session where the group finds themselves taking a side corridor off of the sewers from where they had to fend off rats, dire rats, ghouls and a carrion crawler. Here they enter a large cold chamber eerily lit and containing several coffins and a large pool of crystal clear water.  The group moves cautiously through the room until they inspect one of the coffins.  Several vampires emerge from the coffins and a more elegantly dressed vampire emerges from the pool of water.

This is when the Captain Of The Order Of The Thundershields, Jamril Songsteel, speaks to the main vampire informing him that he has delivered the group to this crypt for the vampires to dispose of the troublesome group as ordered.  He expects the vampires to destroy the group easily and leaves the room using an unseen switch to close and seal the door behind him as he leaves.  The group is scattered throughout the room when the battle begins.

From the beginning the main vampire, Leo Dilysnia, seeks out the fighter in the group and overtakes him with his hypnotic gaze. Alek then turns to his ally, Aelar and tries to run him through with his sword but luckily Osirian seeing the predicament uses his skills to teleport the elf away from Alek as the fighters sword swings through empty air.

The group eventually finds it's rhythm and begins to hack down the vampires until the vampire, Leo Dilysnia is bloodied and speaks to the group.  He points out the alignment of the two separate parties goals.  That is they both want revenge and freedom from The Order Of The Thundershields.  He tells the group that if they combine their powers they can overthrow the Order.  To convince the group of his honest intentions he releases Alex from his dominating gaze and tells the group things they perhaps didn't know.

• He tells them of Amael Ogonborn, the leader of the Order Of The Thunderhsields.  How he uses his power to rid the city of those who speak against him or The Order.
• He uses them as sacrifices to the Giants as an appeasement from attacking the city along with gold from the cities mines
• He also tells them that the giants are growing unsatisfied by the offerings.

The group debates this among themselves before deciding to continue to obliterate the vampires.
Leo Dilysnia, aware that he is outpowered, transforms into a bat and flies with all due haste towards an opening in the side of the crypt.  The group tries to stop him but are hampered by the remaining vampires which they are finding more difficult to contend with than initially thought.

Leo is able to escape and the remaining vampires keep regenerating from their inflicted wounds. Finally the group focuses attacks on the vampires one at a time until they are overcome.

Searching the room:

• Zaya collects up some oddly glowing mushrooms
• Fluffy finds bracers which the group discovers are Bracers Of Infinite Blades. Bracers from which one can secretly extract a magical dagger.....forever.

After debating for a long time as to what to do and where to go from here they decide on retracing their steps through the sewers and have decided their new goal is to extract revenge on the Order Of The Thundershields.  They find the hidden switch, concealed as a block of stone, which reopens the door leading back into the sewers.

Moving at a brisk pace using the kobold's darkvision as guidance they realize that the rats are still a factor to contend with.  After trial and error they rely on "Boy"'s prestidigitation to create bursts of light to scare away the tide of rats before them.  The move through the sewer and flood of rats like Moses through the parted Red Sea.

An ill Ale To Drink

Once lively with patrons, SoldShort's Inn is now desolate

The group returns to the surface to find themselves among the bustling market street but draw attention to themselves due to their filth encrusted and smelly appearance.  They disguise themselves as Osirian and 'Boy' move through the market collecting up information.  They discover:

•  Since the slaughter at the SoldShort Inn, the inn is to be closed until a new owner takes over. The bidding on the property is to be held privately at the city’s offices which are run by The Order of the Thundershields.
• It is whispered that only the rich are allowed to bid and so the rich keep getting richer. The Order is said to take hefty fee just for the honor of being able to bid.
• A 'wanted' scroll is posted near the inn describing the individuals in the group and claiming that they are responsible for the inn's massacre and that they are all wanted for arrest and it offers a reward for their capture at 100 gold pieces.

On top of that, Osirian cannot find his dog, Diamond, who he had left here at the inn.  Determined to wait, seemingly forever, until the faithful return of his dog Osirian, and the rest of the group, wait near the inn.  Fluffy overhears curious sounds from behind the inn.  When the group investigates they see soldiers of The Order, removing valuables from the inn and loading them up in a wagon.  There in the wagon is the dog.

'Boy' and Osirian, trying to disguise himself as a human child, approach the soldiers by the wagon and feign overwhelming grief at the loss of Osirian's "mother" who had worked at the inn.  'Boy' informs them that the dog is Osirian's as well and now he will loose both his mother and his dog the same day.  Falling to the ground and wailing at the top of his lungs, Osirian, is able to shame the soldiers into returning his dog.

A job well done, Osirian skips away happily.

Now the group must find a place to lay low for the evening.  They pass loud bustling inn's in favor for seeking out something less populated in the more seedier side of town.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: I had a few possibilities prepared for the groups places where they could stay. The inn they passed would have worked out fine. They decided to seek out the seedier side of town. You can see how well that worked out for them below. But all in all it was way more fun this way I think.

The Tipsy Worm
900 XP

They find an Inn that seems to promise to sell any unsavory favors that may be sought.  The Tipsy Worm.  Inside there is a wiry, scrawny and greasy old man along with his two hired muscle.  No patrons are in the inn.  They quickly negotiate a price for rooms, baths and food.
They find from innkeeper several interesting tidbits:

• The nearby woods of Juren Forest used to be home to many fey creatures, including elves, until the great Giant War which found the giants victors and the elves either killed off or exiled from the woods.
• The giants now emboldened, attacked the city.  The back then had no military only a number of brave souls who banded together under the leadership of Tramorn Milner, who the people named Tramorn The Protector.  Together they fended off the giants and saved the city.  This group became what is now known as The Order Of The Thundershields.
• After Tramorn passed away, from a wasting sickness, Amael Ogonborn, took leadership of The Order.  Under his leadership The Order became tyrants and thugs no longer worried about protecting the city.
• In order to keep the giants at bay, The Order instead offered the giants sacrifices in both people and gold.  The sacrifices, it is said officially, are prisoners who are condemned murderers and thieves (even though it is also said that The Order allows a thieves guild to run, albeit with a heavy tax)

 Osirian, 'Boy' and Zaya retire to the rooms upstairs to clean up (much needed after trekking through the sewers).  Aelar and Fluffy remain downstairs.

The innkeeper, Trevon, seems excited to have a kobold in the inn, an attractive one at that.  He propositions the kobold with an unsavory business venture.  It seems there are those who would seek out the company of an exotic creature such as Fluffy.  He offers Fluffy a free drink.  Fluffy being Fluffy cannot refuse a free ale (or any ale for that matter).

When Osirian, 'Boy' and Zaya return downstairs, fresher and clean, they cannot find either Fluffy or Aelar.  After threatening the innkeeper, Osirian finds he has two muscular bouncers on either side of him.  Trevon, the innkeeper, states that The Order had come and collected up the missing two and that they are probably in the Order's Keep by now.  The remaining of the group departs, preparing and planning to break the others out of the keep.

That is when Fluffy and Aelar awaken in a cold dark cellar.  They quickly and easily use their magic to free themselves from their chains.  Aelar uses his magic to open the trap door in the ceiling above him and realizes that they are in a cellar directly below the inn.  The trap door opens up in the floor behind the bar and using his magic is able to attack Trevon with psychic damage.

Outside, Orisian, Zaya and 'Boy' barely hear screams off pain from back within the inn.  Suspecting something wrong they rush back towards the inn.  Upon returning Osirian see's Aelar's magical force hiding behind Trevon's head and puts it all together.

Trevon retires to his room with a splitting (psychic damage) headache.  By now Bili and Sal, the bouncers, also realize what's going on and are descending into the cellar to take care of business.  But as Bili starts to climb down, Aelar uses his force powers to pull him down off of the ladder.  Bili is now a dazed, crumpled lump on the floor at the foot of the ladder.  Osirian is able to overpower Sal while Zaya and 'Boy' stealthily enter Trevon's room and together subdue and tie him up.

The group, now reunited, places each of the offenders into the cellar, strips and chains them to the wall.  They close the trap door and leave, but not before carving a scathing note on the door of the inn telling of the atrocities committed by those within.


A Giant Problem
1,200 XP

The next morning the group is heavily debating on their next course of action.  They stand in the nearly empty streets each debating the merits of various courses of action.  That is until they are interrupted by a stream of screaming panic people are running in the same direction.  After a few confusing minutes they discern from the bits and pieces of screamed information, that a couple of giants are hammering away at the city walls at a nearby gate.  Sure enough the group can hear and feel the pounding of the giants against the massive 100 foot tall wall surrounding the city.

Deciding to get more information on what's going on they decide to go against the flow of panicked people the approach the wall where the attack is taking place.  Here they see a few dozen soldiers atop the wall raining arrows down on the giants.  But the massive hammering against the wall continues.

The group decides that they should rally the remaining soldiers nearby to attack directly against the giants by going outside the city walls.  Osirian, strides atop a leaning cart and loudly and persuasively makes an impassioned speech which by the end has the small group of soldiers cheering and with a war cry they leave the city and fight the giants directly.

Outside the city walls they see two large hill giants both hammering at the wall with large boulders. They are riddled with arrows but seem not to care or be bothered much by them.  The battle with the giants sees only a couple of soldiers deaths and Osirian convinces the archers atop the wall to use flaming arrows.  Combined with the massive attacks by the group, the soldiers and the adventurers are easily able to overcome the giants.

Osirian, strides atop the dead giant and makes a speech which seems to absolve the group of their perceived crime (at least to this group of soldiers) and perhaps even convinces a large number of soldiers that their leadership has lost it's way, in protecting the city.  Soldiers cheer for the group and their is much back slapping, hand shaking and even bowing before the elves.

What direction will the party take now.  I have no idea.  I never do.  But can't wait to find out.

DM Note:
This week saw the institution of the new house rule of extras for critical hits and critical failures.  It's funny but now all the rolls of 1 start showing up.  Way more than natural 20s it seemed.  But it definitely added to the tension.

Ancient D20!

Just in case anyone missed it in the news...

The ancient Egyptians were not only really cool, they also (perhaps) played D&D.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced that it has acquired a 20 sided inscribed with Greek symbols.  It's dated around 304 - 30 B.C.

The Greek symbol Theta!  Crit!

Nothing to do with our groups adventures.  But 2000 year old D20!

New House Rule. Critical Hits and Critical Failures.

It's official.

We are now adding the house rule of additional bonuses/penalties to critical rolls.

To add more fun, flavor and risk, a roll of a natural 20 brings now even more fun, while a roll of a natural 1 brings potentially dire penalties.

An awesome tablet created by Fred Crow, will be implemented.
(click here for full pdf glory)

Good Luck.  Try not to die.

Rats!

April 4, 2015

PCs Present:
Osirian Silvertongue
Zaya
Fluffy
'Boy'
Alek Redgar (who is surprisingly found wandering the streets of Diafthora)

To Market, To Market


The session continues from last time and the group is still in the market square trying to spend their hard earned (?) money.  They visit Jack's Arms and Equipment and meet Jack a barrel-chested portly man who is loud and annoying and seems to try to gouge the players for as much as he can.  After buying some feyleather, starleather and some elderscale armor from the man (after much failed haggling) they leave to seek out enchanted armor.

They are directed to Moradin's Hoard.  There they meet Moradin, a flamboyant effeminate human who is excited to see such grizzled and tough characters.   Osirian debates whether or not to trade 'Boy's favors for a better price but eventually pays the agreed price for Battleforged Plate armor.  He leaves unimpressed but with a mission to swap the enchantment onto his preferred armor.  So he scours the market for the items 'Boy' will need to perform the ritual.

Not long after, one of the villagers younglings come to find the group and beckon them back to an inn to carry out their duty to protect them through the night.  They are shepherded to to Soldshort's Inn.

Soldshort's Inn
1350 XP

Little does she know it but that maiden will succumb to the wordmastery of Osirian Silvertongue

Entering the inn they find a warm and inviting place where they are welcomed in and fed by Marlone a friendly plump gnome woman.  The place is bustling and the group finds the inn a good place for Osirian to perform.  Osirian easily earns the price of a feast and rooms for the group, and then some.

They are unsuccessfully, entreated to play a gambling game.  Alek gives the 'plinko' type of game, Behir Skull Rattle, a go only to find it a money losing game.

They overhear rumors of:

• The local militia, The Order Of The Thunderhsields are corrupt, running a 'Protection Tax' scheme on business.
• They perhaps used to be noble in protecting the city.
• They are responsible to running the mines in town but many are finding their domineering attitudes hard to work for.
• The mines are not what they used to be.  Many miners refuse to work deep within, fearing it haunted.

One man, a father of one of the newly inducted Thundershield soldiers, takes mighty offence at the discussion and leaves.

By the end of the night, Osirian has successfully worked his silvertongue into convincing a fetching bar maid into giving him special attention, only to have his reward delayed due to an inconvenient interuption

Shortly after the father of the Thundershield soldier left in a huff, a group of vampires enters the building via various routes and begins immediately to kill all the patrons within.  Battle ensues as the group tries to come to the defense of the villagers.  Zaya quickly finds that even with her incredibly damaging blows the vampires seem to heal most of the damage done within a few minutes.

Alek, who had been outside at the begining, hears the commotion and as he tries to re-enter, he is confronted by a vampire.  Alek tries to pass himself off as one of the attacking vampires to gain entry and then kills the gullible vampire.

The group finds they have to pull out all their big moves in order to defeat the numerous vampires. But eventually they succeed.  Soon afterwards, they decide to rummage through the inn and find money among the patrons, cash box and Marlone's private quarters (after Osirian ends updestroying the hidden compartment in the floor where her stash was kept).  Zaya also finds a vial of vermillion colored liquid.

Just as Osirian is about to comfort the comely bar maid, he is interrupted, again, this time by the arrival of a group of The Order Of  Thundershields.  The captain, Jamril Songsteel, seems to quickly assess what has happened and decides to recruit the group to assist in tracking down and killing the offending vampires.  Jamril does express some concern when he looks to Fluff, as the kobold has clearly drank more than his share tonight and seems only to be continuing.

Through The Sewers

1,900 XP

This looks much cleaner than the sewer that the group is in

The large group of vampires are easily backtracked to a sewer grate and down the party goes into the murky black odorous corridors.

They first come across a drain, at which they hear the sounds of, what Zaya quickly figures out to be, a slaughterhouse directly above them.  The multitude of rats also hear the sounds and start to converge on the drain pipe.  The group moves on only to find themselves caught between to of the drain pipes which now start a deluge of blood and guts from above.  

They now have rat swarms, dire rats and finally a carrion crawler who has taken up residence within one of the drain pipes.

The group quickly deduces that the rat swarms are only really damage by area burst or flames and after a concerted effort they overcome the filth monsters and are not too hurt by the encounter.

No one, (not after even the DM specifically asks if they want to) wants to search through the filth to see if anyone perhaps had suffered a similar fate here and perished with any valuables.  Oh well.

A little bit of a short session it seems but fun none the less.